Running To You
by Erandri
Summary: Broken glass lay on the floor, rimming dried pools of brightly colored emotions. Chairs had been thrown and clothes were strewn everywhere. Not even the rooms sole occupant seemed to be in once piece as he stared at the only thing undamaged in the room, a purple jacket hanging in a glass case. One shot.


**After watching Alice for the first time in years this little story popped into my head. Hope you enjoy!**

**All characters, plots and settings belong to the creators of SyFy's Alice, I just borrowed their genius for a little bit.**

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She was gone in a blink. Just like that she had disappeared from his life and only the Looking Glass was there, his reflection staring back at him. It was like she was never here at all, except that everything reminded him of her. This whole land had been changed because of her. When the Looking Glass stilled and he could no longer bare to stare at it he turned his back and walked out of the building. Charlie made to talk to him but he just brushed him off and walked away. He didn't want to talk to him, or anybody. He just wanted to be alone.

So, he made his way back to the tea shop. He was no longer a wanted man anymore so he figured that it would be safe to go back. When he got there it looked just the same as when he had left with Alice. Had it really only been a few days ago? It felt like a lifetime. When he pulled on the door it came open without any hesitation and he stepped inside to see mayhem. Chairs had been thrown cross the room and tables were upturned. Part of the railing was broken and lay in pieces on the floor below. The glass shelves that once held those precious bottles of emotions were shattered. Shards of glass were strewn across the room casting a flicker of light here and there depending where the sun hit them. Each emotion was mixed with pools of dirt and blood and splattered on some of the pieces but he gave them no mind. There were bullet holes in his chalkboard and the ticker tapes were flashing without reason.

_ Serenity 1.28%_

_ Serenity 1.28%_

_ Serenity 1.28%_

He forced himself to look away and move into his office. It appeared that most of the destruction had stopped in the show room. There were two bullet holes in the hallway and the door of his office but other than that it seemed untouched. Until he opened the door. His papers were strewn all over the room, his chair and been knocked over and all of his clothes were taken out of the closet and thrown across the room. Shoes had landed on his desk and coats patterned the floor. His headphones had been stepped on and the earpiece lay cracked open, it's entire inner workings now on display. Only the teas on his shelf seemed to have escaped the barrage.

He didn't know how long he stood there, memorizing the damage before he found the will to move again. He dropped the jacket in his hands and righted his favorite chair. He stopped and slowly turned to look at the jacket. It lay in a lifeless pile a few feet behind him and that image was enough to snap him. He grabbed the nearest thing to him, a lamp, and threw it at it with all his might. It bounced and landed a foot away from the coat as he continued to punish the piece of clothing. He threw anything he could at it, papers, clothing, glassware. As they landed across the room the broke into pieces or merely bounced away yet the jacket remained unaffected. Finally his anger dissipated and he sunk to the floor, his eyes never leaving the purple mound. After a few minutes he let out a sigh and stood up. He crossed the distance to the jacket in a few short strides and gingerly picked it up, pieces of glass falling off it and silently landing on the floor. He gave it a gentle shake and a familiar smell wafted off of the material. _Alice._ He went to the closet where it had originally hung and put it back on it's hanger before closing the doors. It was the only thing left in the closet.

_How did it come to this?_ He asked himself as he sat down in his chair. _When did I start to feel like this? When did she start to matter to me? Oh, that's right, from the start. I never had a chance against her._

He must have been there for days. Sometimes he cried, sometimes he was angry and threw things, most of the time he just sat there. He would have stayed there forever had Jack not come.

"The tea's all gone," He announced when he heard his door open, he didn't bother to look and see who it was. Who else had reason to visit him but Jack, "It's all been stolen or destroyed. You don't have to worry about me anymore."

Jack took in the sight of the room. Everything in the room was broken except for a glass closet containing a single jacket that he easily recognized as the one that Alice had been wearing. A small pile of glass lay just below it and the remains of different teas were streaked down the glass doors. It seemed a wonder that they hadn't cracked as well. Hatter sat in his chair, unflinching. His attention was glued to the jacket.

"I'm not here about the tea," Jack said moving so that he could see Hatter's face. He was still wearing the same clothes as when he last saw him and his eyes were dark and unfocused, "It's been a week Hatter."

"I know."

"No. You don't, you haven't left this room since Alice went back through the Looking Glass."

"How would you know, you spying on me?"

"Yes," Jack deadpanned and for the first time Hatter looked at him.

"Why? I'm no threat to you anymore. I have nothing left here, I have nothing left to give anyone," the way he said it almost made Jack feel sorry for him.

"I know-" Jack started but something in Hatter snapped and he cut him off.

"You know? You know! Why are you here Jack? To rub it in? Everything that I have is gone!" Hatter yelled but Jack remained unfazed, "My home has been destroyed, my shop has been ransacked and my job has very clearly been taken off of the market. My friends think that I betrayed them and everyone else wants nothing to do with me. I have _nothing_ left... I am nothing."

Hatter slumped back into his chair and stared at the jacket again. All of his emotions was drained and now he just looked hollow.

"You certainly seemed to be someone when you were with her."

"Don't," Hatter sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, "Don't bring her into this. She made her choice."

"Only because you never gave her another option." he tried to say it as gently as he could but there was still some bite behind the words. He was angry with Hatter for several reasons, letting Alice leave was just about top of the list. He knew as soon as he saw them together at the Throne Room that something had changed in her. That Hatter meant something to her. He just didn't realize how much until she refused his proposal at the Looking Glass. The only one who could have kept her in Wonderland then was Hatter, but he was too blind to see it. Jack took a packet out from his pocket and threw it at Hatter. He caught it with ease and gave it a look as if it was poisoned.

"What is this?"

"Everything you need to start a life over there," he stated and Hatter gave him a confused look, "A birth certificate, social security card, drivers license and a couple hundred dollars. It's everything that you need to get started in her world. Though you will be needing a new wardrobe. For one I can smell you from here and two, people over there tend to dress more demure."

"Why? Why would you help me like this?"

"I'm not helping you, I'm helping her. I don't like you Hatter, you run with bad people and you get into dangerous situations far too often. You have lived your whole life never choosing a side and not giving a damn about the people who you affect. You've ruined dozens of lives just by running this shop of yours and people have died or been hurt just because they know you. But, you did help those people in the library and you helped to save millennium of Wonderlands history. You also saved Alice and all those people in the casino, despite the risks to yourself. And for some reason which I still have yet to comprehend, Alice likes you. She chose you and I respect her decisions. That is why I am helping you," He made a few steps towards the door before he stopped, "I'm closing the Looking Glass tomorrow, maybe for good. Make your choice Hatter, whichever you choose you won't hear any more from me."

With that Jack was gone and once again Hatter was left alone with his thoughts. _Could he do it? Could he leave his whole life, whole world, behind and move into Alice's world? He had the means now but what about when he found her, would she feel the same way about him as he felt about her? They had never spoken about it. She was always Jack's, but somewhere along the line she had become his. But what if he wasn't hers? Jack said that he was closing the Looking Glass that meant that if she turn him away then he would be stuck there in a new world with no one to help him. He would have nothing over there, yet, he had nothing over here. At least with her there was the possibility. He knew that she was the only one that he belonged with, she was the only person who could make him feel the way that he had. She was the only person that he had ever chosen to side with completely. Just Alice, _his_ Alice._

He knew what he needed to do and be damned the consequences. So, he changed as fast as he could into something more 'demure' as Jack had put it, combed down his hair, grabbed his papers and ran. He wasn't running to a new world, he wasn't running to a new life, he was running to Alice, because she _was_ his world and his life. He had just never realized it before.

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**I hope that you enjoyed it! I certainly had a good time writing it. I hope to post another Alice fic sometime in the near future, it will be an AU chapter fic but i'm not entirely pleased with how I have it starting. Hopefully I'll have some time to work on it over Thanksgiving break and will get some chapters up before the end of the month.**

**Thanks for reading!**


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